tags:  Agribusiness Agri Resources Madagascar

MonacoResources claim for a better Vanilla quality control

Agri Resources Madagascar is a subsidiary of the Agri Resources Group.  Located in Antalaha, in the heart of the vanilla producing area on the north Malagasy coast, Agri Resources is dedicated to the cultivation of spices and vanilla.

 The company manages agricultural activities at all stages of the supply chain by producing its own products which it processes and delivers to national and international markets.

The main strategy of the company is to subscribe to a sustainable management of vanilla to perpetuate the traditional methods of preparation of Madagascan vanilla which have made it famous.

Agri Resources works with farmers’ cooperatives in the Antalaha area and north of Sambava.  The company collaborates with the Association Inside Madagascar, the association responsible for monitoring these cooperatives, offering training in new crops, strengthening agricultural techniques related to vanilla, securing production areas and also projects linked to access to water, healthcare, education, etc.

In addition, since 2015 we have undertaken to acquire land and plant organic vanilla to ensure a certified production base to meet the demand of our customers.  It also allows us to test other crops to optimize the quality of the crops.

We are working on two river axes: the first near Antalaha, which brings together different cooperatives bringing together 350 producers, and the second axis, north of Sambava, which brings together more than 1,000 farmers.  It is a project in partnership with the NGO VDB (Vanille Durable Bemanevika) and our client PROVA.

The cultivation of vanilla has, no major impact on the environment, because most of the farms are traditional, under a forest cover.  Vanilla needs natural stakes to grow, so it is rare to see that areas are deforested to introduce vanilla.

The rise in prices has enabled many other countries to develop this type of culture for 4 or 5 years.  So, Indonesia, Uganda, India to name a few, have planted enormously.  The risk is that within 1 or 2 years, we will end up with excess production, facing consumers who will have turned away from the natural pod for synthetic or natural aroma but without vanilla.

In the vanilla sector, we continue to professionalize ourselves to meet the most demanding demands of our customers in terms of certification.  We have therefore undertaken to certify our vanilla plantations as organic and are entering a HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certification phase to meet European and American standards.

At the plantation level, we are diversifying and also encouraging our groups of farmers to do the same, by developing activities for the distillation of aromatic plants. The SAVA Region is an agronomic paradise, its development depends on it.